PayPal is a convenient means of sending money, but sometimes it might be the other way round. There are situations that a sender might input a wrong email address and click on send before noticing that a wrong email address was what was inputted, instantly such money will be removed from your PayPal account. However, there are certain things you can do to revoke this and get your money back by simply canceling the PayPal payment.
What to do? Keep reading to learn how to cancel a PayPal payment and the things to do before it’ll be too late.
You might as well be interested in reading: What is PayPal? And how to use it?
Read Also: How To Delete PayPal Account in 2 Minutes
Can a PayPal payment be canceled?
Yes! It can. But, you have to be hastened in doing this because a limited time has been set by PayPal before it’s too late to do so. There are also certain payments that need to be accepted before they eventually drop in the receiver’s account, in such cases you can cancel a PayPal payment if they haven’t been claimed.
How to know if a PayPal Payment Has Been Claimed
We must first understand some concept about claims before knowing how to know if a PayPal payment has been claimed.
To start with, claims are issued when a buyer complaint is being jacked up to PayPal or if the buyer filed an unauthorized transaction.
Claims occur if an item is not received or if the buyer states that the item that he/she received is significantly different from what was expected, or if there was an unauthorized transaction.
How to know if a claim has been filed against you
You’ll be notified via your email. You can as well check it in the Resolution Center.
How to Respond to a Claim:
- Log in to your PayPal account.
- Go to the Resolution Center.
- Click on Respond in the Action column next to where your claim is.
- Select the way you would like to respond and then click on Continue.
To know if a PayPal payment has been claimed
Once the transfer shows as “Completed” then the money is in the buyer’s account, and in such cases, you can no longer cancel the PayPal transaction (but there are still a few options on how you can still get your fund back).
Cases/situations where payment needs to be claimed
There are a few situations where payment will be needed to be claimed before the recipient can get the fund which will be listed below.
- If the recipient email does not have a registered PayPal account. As soon as it’s registered, the transaction will automatically be completed.
- If the recipient email is not verified. As soon as it’s verified, the transaction will automatically be complete.
Luckily, this covers a major reason why you’d want to cancel a PayPal payment: entering the wrong address. There are situations where the email address might not be existing, in such a case, the money will stay in awaiting action, in this case, even if you do not cancel the payment, the fund will automatically be returned to your account after 30 days. But if the email address does exist, you need to cancel the transaction before it gets claimed.
Different PayPal Payments Methods We Have
Selecting a preferred payment depends on the process to go about the canceling of a PayPal payment. If you choose a preferred payment method, this is what will be shown as your primary method of payment. We also have the backup payment method – This is a one-time online transaction that may require a backup funding method. The preapproved payments/automatic payments method – This is a form of agreement with the seller, where you will be given permission to pay using PayPal every time you decide to make a purchase. Here, you can instruct your monthly TV subscription service to always charge a certain amount of money in your PayPal account monthly. Lastly, you can decide to pay with rewards. Such rewards may include points, miles, or even cash back, as well as other reward types.
How To Cancel a Pending PayPal Payment
A pending PayPal money occurs because the online payment services hold funds in some cases. Here’s a list of why a fund could be placed on hold; you’re new to selling, you haven’t sold anything in a long duration of time, a lot of customers filed complaints about a refund, dispute, or chargeback, you have a strange or odd selling pattern, you’re selling a higher-risk item.
It’s easy to remember the processes required in canceling a PayPal payment once you have carried out the transaction, but it might look confusing at the initial stage.
The first most important thing to do is log in to your PayPal account and then go to the Activity page. Then, go to All transactions. A list of your past transactions will be popped-out, and you should be able to find the payment you want to cancel somewhere on the list.
The truth is this: A pending payment can only be canceled if the fund has not been claimed or the transaction is yet to be completed, then, you will see a small “Cancel” link. Click on it, then you’ll see a Cancel Payment on the next page and the fund will be returned. Here’s a quick reference of the required steps on how to cancel a PayPal pending payment:
- Log in to your PayPal account.
- At the top of the page, click on Activity.
- Select All Transactions.
- Find the payment and click on Cancel.
- A new page will pop out. On this page, click on Cancel Payment.
You can as well cancel a pending PayPal payment by going through these steps:
- Log in to your PayPal account.
- Go to the Summary page and locate the pending payment.
- Click on Cancel under the pending payment.
- Click on Cancel Payment.
It is also worthy to recap on this; if a payment is pending for 30 days, it will be canceled automatically and refunded back to your PayPal account. If you sent the payment using a bank account and the payment was canceled, it will be refunded to your PayPal balance, but you’ll have to wait for 3-4 working days for the fund to appear in your balance.
How To Cancel a Recurring PayPal Payment
A recurring payment is an automatic payment method that authorizes a seller to charge whenever a buyer wants to make a purchase on their website without signing in to your PayPal account. A PayPal recurring payment allows you to set up payments for subscriptions on your PayPal account. They are easy to set up but once your subscription ends you may need to cancel the PayPal transaction in addition to canceling the subscription you have with the business itself.
Canceling a recurring PayPal payment can be done in two ways.
First Method;
You need to log in to your account first. Once you’ve logged in, click on the username button in the upper right of the popout page. Then, click on Account Settings, after that, click on Money, Banks & Cards, and finally, go to the Set Automatic payments.
From there, click on the name of the business you have the recurring payment with, then click on Cancel. For a better reference, here are the steps;
How to cancel a recurring PayPal payment
- Log in to your PayPal account.
- Click on the username button at the top right corner.
- Select Account Settings.
- Click on Money, Banks & Cards.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select Set Automatic Payments.
- Select the recurring payment or the subscription you want to cancel.
- Click on Cancel.
Second Method;
You can as well cancel a recurring PayPal payment, a subscription, or an automatic billing agreement by going through this process:
- Log in to your PayPal account.
- Click on Settings near the top of the popout page.
- Click on Payments.
- Click on Manage pre-approved payments.
- Click on Cancel or Click on Cancel automatic billing and follow the preceding instructions.
Note: You have to cancel a recurring payment at least 24 hours before it’s scheduled to happen. You can still cancel the subscription, but the next payment might be sent, and note that even after canceling a payment, subscription, or an automatic billing agreement, you’re still required to pay the merchant for the goods or services which you had received.
For cases where the buyer does not have a PayPal account, you should contact the merchant (seller) directly to help in canceling the agreement and if happens that you can’t reach out to the merchant, in such a case, you should contact PayPal Customer Service using a mobile phone. You can reach to them following this process;
- Go to the PayPal official website.
- Click on Help at the top of the popout page.
- Click on Call customer support.
- Then, click on “You can always Call us as a Guest”.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a fee for canceling a PayPal payment?
No, there is no fee attached to canceling a PayPal payment. Just go through the process below;
- Log in to your PayPal account.
- Click on the Activity at the top of the popout page.
- Click on the transaction you’d like to terminate by clicking on cancel.
- Click on Cancel in the “Order Status/Actions” column of the transaction you want to cancel.
- Click on Cancel payment.
I tried canceling my PayPal payment using my mobile phone but it isn’t going through. What can I do?
Rather than going through the above processes with your mobile phone. It is best advisable to go on with canceling PayPal unclaimed payments by logging in to your PayPal account from a Laptop/Desktop. Oftentimes, it doesn’t work directly from the PayPal application on a mobile phone.
I sent some amount of money to the wrong email, what can I do to revoke this?
The only way you can cancel a PayPal payment is if the email account you sent money to is an unregistered one. Although there are still some other options you can do to get your money refunded.
Why can’t I receive my money on PayPal in Ukraine?
The option to receive PayPal payments is not available in Ukraine. Payments can only be sent for purchases funded by your a confirmed credit card. Here’s a list of available countries that can send as well as receive payments.
I mistakenly put in an incorrect bank account number and made a transfer. What should I do?
In a situation like this, since the bank details are incorrect, the funds will automatically return to your PayPal account. This may take about 14 days.
What should I do to a company that fraudulently charges me?
Log in to your PayPal account and check if your subscription is still marked as active. Then, go on to click on the profile tab (it’s just next to log out to the logout icon). Click on payments (this is just the third option in the thick blue band top of the page) then, click on “manage pre-approved payments” and do the necessary corrections.
I was refunded, but the card where I’ll get the refund is not available anymore. Can I change the card after receiving the refund?
It will eventually go back to that cad, but you’ll need to have some conversation with your card issuers about recovering the funds.
What to do if a seller claims that PayPal funds have not been released?
You do not have PayPal buyer protection cover as a guest buyer, but you can simply the customer service representative and they may be able to assist you in reaching out to the seller or you could open a PayPal account with the card used to fund the guest transaction and adding the reference number as per email to add the transaction to your PayPal account. If you need help with a guest buyer transaction, then you can do any of these; put a call through the PayPal customer services for assistance or contact your card issuer for a chargeback.
Conclusion
Sometimes if you are unable to catch up in time or the recipient already has a PayPal account, there are still a few ways in which you can get your fund back.
Although, this kind of transfer is oftentimes difficult to get back. Your first recourse should be to ask for a refund. If the retailer denies you your refund request, your options haven’t ended yet. The next step to take is to report the issue in PayPal’s Resolution Center, where a customer representative will look into the case. This does not guarantee you that you will get your money back, but PayPal is good at looking at cases and knowing if such a complaint is genuine.
